Any plans to support Upnp for devices connected to the router?

Apr 2, 2008 4:27am

mditty 8 post(s)

I now have an 2825 and 2111 with an xbox hanging off the 2111. One problem is that xbox gaming doesn’t needs a few open ports.

Most routers now will just use upnp to open the ports, but looks like the ruckus doesn’t support that. Any plans to add that support?

Apr 2, 2008 5:07pm

Ruckus Support 163 post(s)

Hi mditty,

Unfortunately, we can not discuss any features that are not available at the moment.

Kind Regards,

Ruckus Support

Apr 2, 2008 6:47pm

mditty 8 post(s)

That is understandable, thanks for the reply. I’m mainly asking because if this isn’t going to be added I might have to go find a new solution, so I’ll just have to decide if I’m willing to do the maintenance on keeping things port forwarded correctly.

Apr 3, 2008 5:11am

csannedhi Administrator 71 post(s)

How is port forwarding is an alternative to UPnP solution?

Apr 3, 2008 7:03am

mditty 8 post(s)

Well I should probably break it down like this. There would be 2 uses for UPnP on a router.

1. Is something like I believe the Zone products support, or at least the controllers. This is basically to allow a device to be discovered on the network automatically by the host. Good for printers, routers, and other network devices that need to be seen.

2. A computer can advertise it is now offering a service and the router can setup the correct port forwarding for this. I don’t actually know any of the technical details on how this communication occurs but a couple good examples where it is helpful would be.

- Most bittorrent clients now support UPnP. So when you have it turned on it will cause the ports on the router that are required to make the connections with the outside world get automatically opened.
- An xbox when it logs into xbox live will advertise some services through uPnP so that better connections can be made through the NAT and you can play games on xbox live.

With my current setup of a 2825 -> 2111 -> xbox360. The xbox can’t even play games online that are multiplayer as it won’t be able to accept the incoming connections. I think the bridge makes this worse as the xbox considers it entirely broken while my old setup without uPnP was only partially broken.

The fix to this is setup the port forwarding automatically instead of uPnP doing it for me, but the downside is I have to setup a static IP on the xbox, when a friend brings over an xbox it won’t just work, and the forwarding will have to be always on instead of dynamically setup when needed.

Of course there are some security concerns but that is why you allow it to be disabled.

I think just about every broadband router sold today (beyond a few niche products) supports UPnP. So I hadn’t even been checking for this feature while shopping around.

A quick search seems to imply this feature of uPnP uses the IGD protocol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Gateway_D…

Apr 4, 2008 1:44am

csannedhi Administrator 71 post(s)

Having UPnP support on 2825 AP makes it discoverable on the network. As you mentioned ZoneDirector has this support which makes it discoverable on the network for ease of configuring it.

What you are saying is – you want to start bittorrent client on your laptop and the 2825 AP will set up port forwarding automatically, correct?

Can you give an example for a AP that can do it?

Apr 4, 2008 7:19am

mditty 8 post(s)

Yes there are two common examples:

Fire up bittorrent and normally your download speeds would be slow since people often can’t connect through your nat. The upnp bittorrent client will request ports to be open and now more people will be able to connect to you.

The xbox needs some ports forwarded to get easy connections to the other players online. When you turn it on the UPnp features of the xbox will request ports get opened up and allow it to connect.

Most consumer “broadband router” type devices support this. Some don’t really explicitly mention it in their specs so it can be tricky to determine if some of them support it, it is sort of assumed for most of the companies.

The Linksys WRT-54G supports it, I’ve used this to game in the past with no troubles and if you search the interrupt it talks it having it. There was some early security holes in the firmware but all the current versions work fine.

Netgear puts it on their spec page so here is an example from their G router.
http://www.netgear.com/Products/RoutersandGatew…

This page talks a bit about what routers work well with xbox live, it is a pretty safe guess that all or most of these support UPnP
http://www.xbox.com/en-us/support/connecttolive…

Apr 8, 2008 1:40am

csannedhi Administrator 71 post(s)

That is great information, appreciate it.

Ruckus Wireless Forums

Any plans to support Upnp for devices connected to the router?

Voices

Apr 2, 2008 4:27am mditty 8 post(s)	I now have an 2825 and 2111 with an xbox hanging off the 2111. One problem is that xbox gaming doesn’t needs a few open ports. Most routers now will just use upnp to open the ports, but looks like the ruckus doesn’t support that. Any plans to add that support?

Apr 2, 2008 5:07pm Ruckus Support 163 post(s)	Hi mditty, Unfortunately, we can not discuss any features that are not available at the moment. Kind Regards, Ruckus Support

Apr 2, 2008 6:47pm mditty 8 post(s)	That is understandable, thanks for the reply. I’m mainly asking because if this isn’t going to be added I might have to go find a new solution, so I’ll just have to decide if I’m willing to do the maintenance on keeping things port forwarded correctly.

Apr 3, 2008 5:11am csannedhi Administrator 71 post(s)	How is port forwarding is an alternative to UPnP solution?

Apr 3, 2008 7:03am mditty 8 post(s)	Well I should probably break it down like this. There would be 2 uses for UPnP on a router. 1. Is something like I believe the Zone products support, or at least the controllers. This is basically to allow a device to be discovered on the network automatically by the host. Good for printers, routers, and other network devices that need to be seen. 2. A computer can advertise it is now offering a service and the router can setup the correct port forwarding for this. I don’t actually know any of the technical details on how this communication occurs but a couple good examples where it is helpful would be. - Most bittorrent clients now support UPnP. So when you have it turned on it will cause the ports on the router that are required to make the connections with the outside world get automatically opened. - An xbox when it logs into xbox live will advertise some services through uPnP so that better connections can be made through the NAT and you can play games on xbox live. With my current setup of a 2825 -> 2111 -> xbox360. The xbox can’t even play games online that are multiplayer as it won’t be able to accept the incoming connections. I think the bridge makes this worse as the xbox considers it entirely broken while my old setup without uPnP was only partially broken. The fix to this is setup the port forwarding automatically instead of uPnP doing it for me, but the downside is I have to setup a static IP on the xbox, when a friend brings over an xbox it won’t just work, and the forwarding will have to be always on instead of dynamically setup when needed. Of course there are some security concerns but that is why you allow it to be disabled. I think just about every broadband router sold today (beyond a few niche products) supports UPnP. So I hadn’t even been checking for this feature while shopping around. A quick search seems to imply this feature of uPnP uses the IGD protocol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Gateway_D…

Apr 4, 2008 1:44am csannedhi Administrator 71 post(s)	Having UPnP support on 2825 AP makes it discoverable on the network. As you mentioned ZoneDirector has this support which makes it discoverable on the network for ease of configuring it. What you are saying is – you want to start bittorrent client on your laptop and the 2825 AP will set up port forwarding automatically, correct? Can you give an example for a AP that can do it?

Apr 4, 2008 7:19am mditty 8 post(s)	Yes there are two common examples: Fire up bittorrent and normally your download speeds would be slow since people often can’t connect through your nat. The upnp bittorrent client will request ports to be open and now more people will be able to connect to you. The xbox needs some ports forwarded to get easy connections to the other players online. When you turn it on the UPnp features of the xbox will request ports get opened up and allow it to connect. Most consumer “broadband router” type devices support this. Some don’t really explicitly mention it in their specs so it can be tricky to determine if some of them support it, it is sort of assumed for most of the companies. The Linksys WRT-54G supports it, I’ve used this to game in the past with no troubles and if you search the interrupt it talks it having it. There was some early security holes in the firmware but all the current versions work fine. Netgear puts it on their spec page so here is an example from their G router. http://www.netgear.com/Products/RoutersandGatew… This page talks a bit about what routers work well with xbox live, it is a pretty safe guess that all or most of these support UPnP http://www.xbox.com/en-us/support/connecttolive…

Apr 8, 2008 1:40am csannedhi Administrator 71 post(s)	That is great information, appreciate it.